''Battle Beneath the Earth'' is a 1967 British

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

starring

Kerwin Mathews Kerwin Mathews (January 8, 1926 – July 5, 2007) was an American actor best known for playing the titular heroes in ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' (1958), ''The Three Worlds of Gulliver'' (1960) and '' Jack the Giant Killer'' (1962). Early lif ...

. It was released by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

. The film also features

character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...

Ed Bishop George Victor Bishop (11 June 1932 – 8 June 2005), known professionally as Ed Bishop or sometimes Edward Bishop, was an American actor. He was known for playing Commander Ed Straker in ''UFO'', Captain Blue in ''Captain Scarlet and the Myste ...

Plot

Scientist Arnold Kramer believes that rogue elements of the communist

Chinese Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

headed by fanatic General Chan Lu are using advanced burrowing machines in an effort to conquer the U.S. by placing

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

s under major cities. In the opening, Las Vegas police are called for a report that Dr. Kramer is prone in a sidewalk telling people he hears movement underneath. The bombs are in tunnels dug from China through the

Hawaiian islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

to the United States. In the expected war 100 million are forecast to die. He is committed to an asylum, but when he is visited by

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

commander Jonathan Shaw, what he tells him lines up with observations Shaw made himself. Shaw gets him released and produces enough evidence to convince his superiors that the story is on the level, and he is ordered to lead troops underground to defeat the red army and defuse the bombs. The movie ends with the U.S. Army detonating nuclear bombs in the tunnel in Hawaii. The detonations are reported to have stopped all activity in the tunnels.

Cast

Release

The movie was featured on the

CBS Late Movie ''The CBS Late Movie'' is a CBS television series (later known as ''CBS Late Night'') during the 1970s and 1980s. The program ran in most American television markets from 11:30 p.m. ( ET/ PT) until 2:30 a.m. or later, on weeknights. A ...

, in late-December 1973. The picture later received a VHS home-video release in the early 1980s. It was also a staple of afternoon-movie or Saturday-morning

Creature Features ''Creature Features'' is a generic title for a genre of horror TV format shows broadcast on local American television stations throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The movies broadcast on these shows were generally classic and cult horror ...

-type TV programs before the historic sale of the

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

/ UA film library. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer originally handled North American theatrical distribution. The movie was released to

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video ...

on 29 July 2008, as a

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

exclusive double feature with ''

The Ultimate Warrior Warrior (born James Brian Hellwig; June 16, 1959 – April 8, 2014) was an American professional wrestler and bodybuilder. Best known by his ring name The Ultimate Warrior, he wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 198 ...

''.

Reception

The film has been described as "deliriously paranoid".

Score

The film features a fast-paced "crime-jazz" / jazz-noir musical score by Ken Jones.

References

External links

* * * * 1967 films 1960s action films British action films British spy films Cold War spy films 1960s English-language films Films about nuclear war and weapons Films directed by Montgomery Tully Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films shot at MGM-British Studios 1960s British films {{1960s-UK-film-stub